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Mother Heidi Bosniakowski said the trouble with Lisa's liver started when she was born.

Bosniakowski and her husband, Justin Brown, noticed bruises appearing on Lisa's arms the day after her birth. When Lisa got a bruise on her spine their midwife sent them to the doctor for blood tests.

The test showed her liver wasn't functioning properly.

Over the following months her liver continued to deteriorate but doctors were unable to find the cause.

Eventually the couple decided to seek treatment in Germany, Bosniakowski's home country.

Doctors in Germany told them Lisa's liver was "history" and she needed a transplant urgently.

Within three weeks, a piece of her father's liver was removed and transplanted into the 5-month-old.

Bosniakowski said both the diagnosis and the surgery were difficult times for the family.

"It was a pretty rough start. I'll always remember when I had to hand her over to the surgeons - just the wait, it was so long, and Justin was in at the same time."

Even now Bosniakowski worried at times.

"She's doing really well but there's still the uncertainty. We don't know what caused the liver failure so it's all at the back of your mind."

But the shaky start has not held Lisa back.

"She just gives everything a go," Bosniakowski said.

For the younger competitors, the games were more about showing transplant survivors they could do anything they put their minds to and meet other children who had been through a similar thing, Bosniakowski said.

New Zealand Transplant Games Association team manager Sheryl Power agreed the games were a wonderful way to raise organ donor awareness and show, through sport, the difference a transplant could make to a person's well-being.